Thomas Lidforss International

Lifestream of your global business partner

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 2 days ago

Mippin - Mobile blog result, 5 minutes and this is the result ad enabled: I have to give the Mippin.com.. http://tinyurl.com/6j4xa4
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Mippin feed validation KEY=8e8d322f: Oops, this is what happens when you are in a hurry and don't read .. http://tinyurl.com/6mlnr8
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Rippin' with Mippin - Nice and handy way to get your monetized mobile blog: If you have not heard of ou.. http://tinyurl.com/6cup4u
quotably 09:59 PM

Mippin - Mobile blog result, 5 minutes and this is the result ad enabled 7:59 PM


I have to give the Mippin.com guys a big thumb up. This service works very well. Please help yourself and check this service out if you have a blog and want to reach into the hundreds of millions of mobile phone internet users with your blog. I can highly recommend it.

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs.

Mippin feed validation KEY=8e8d322f 7:54 PM

Oops, this is what happens when you are in a hurry and don't read instructions. Let's see what happens now with Mippin's AdMob validation...

Rippin' with Mippin - Nice and handy way to get your monetized mobile blog 7:26 PM


If you have not heard of our used Mippin, http://www.mippin.com and its Mobilizer service you are missing something really good. Mippin does social networking and auto generation of your blog source (in my case this blog) into a mobi-style blog (http://mippin.com/tlidforss) and allows you to use AdMob's ad services for your mobile blog. I have to say, nice layout, you got two styles to choose from;
  1. List style with images and text with links
  2. Images ala iPhone layout only with links

I am posting this first post to get AdMob enabled and verified on the Mippin mobile blog site. Mipping is using a verification code system for this.

Mippin feed validation KEY=8e8d322f

Stay tuned for updates about usability and any other comments.

Sunday, November 16, 2008 4 days ago

Hold on to your neck - Escape the noise with Neckmike: We all use our mobile phones in more and more pl.. http://tinyurl.com/5goeks
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Hold on to your neck - Escape the noise with Neckmike 7:50 PM

We all use our mobile phones in more and more places and know how annoying it is when you cannot have a normal conversation because of noise from the background or environment whether at work or out driving or boating. Here's the perfect solution. Neckmike (r) from http://www.neckmike.com and http://www.bikeman.se
Neckmike started in 2004 by the inventor Bo Franzen has successfully been selling the latest product version the GSM Neckmike since 2007. The concept behind the product is simple but very efficient, use a neck band with dual "neck" microphones and two noise and shockwave blocking earplugs and you have handy small product to use with your mobile phone wherever you go. I met Bo and checked the product out at the Mobile Focus 2008 event in Stockholm last week. I have used similar design earplugs on shooting ranges and going hunting in USA so I know they work.

See the demo video by Bo and you will understand directly what it is and does for you.

Saturday, November 15, 2008 5 days ago

Maximize your ROI on search advertising and SEO services, Great tips from Omniture event: Maximize your.. http://tinyurl.com/6p3jcz
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Maximize your ROI on search advertising and SEO services, Great tips from Omniture event 12:59 PM






Maximize your ROI on search advertising and SEO services, Great tips from Omniture event with presentations from Omniture UK, KeyBroker and iConvert.

Here's a list of services and my tidbits about how to do things smarter for your marketing.

Important to think about account structure before you get started and get too deep into what you are doing; Use an "agency" view and apply multiple accounts for search engine, campaigns and ad-groups.

Think "merge" of CRM data, blog data, website data and design of landing pages so your landing pages apply both CPM, PPC and SEO keyword requirements. This results in a "sales-funnel" approach to how you layout and structure the use of different data on different levels.

An example of landing page levels;

  • Level 1, home page - think brand, industry branch,
    category when you choose keywords
  • Level 2, product area page - think products area specific
    keywords
  • Level 3, individual product page - think product specific
    keywords and chosen features, benefits and advantages (F/B/A) keywords
  • Level 4, Buy or call to action page - reinforce F/B/A
    keywords and provide easy action

Design of Landing pages
  • Design a landing page having clearly in mind, where do you want your
    customer to end up? Applies for all levels of pages.
  • Use images, color, action text
  • Use 3 different designs of you landing page layout ads for the same
    campaigns, kill the two worst performing, write two new ones based on the
    number one performing, keep going, allow 6 months for analytics and follow up,
    then keep marketing

Conversion

Some facts from iConvert about conversion
  • Fortune 500 companies spend about 15% of marketing budget on optimization
  • A lot money on optimization but not on analyzing and measuring conversion
    rate
  • Optimization still a must but testing needed

Testing, Segmenting and Targeting (TST)

The commonly used split testing (A/B) usually does not work because it only tells which one of the two alternative ads work better but the result does not tell you why? -> use multivariate testing (MVT)

MVT testing will analyze use of a specific element vs. price, product message, no phone number in ad, what logo used, etc.

Segmentation

You want to check parameters such as
  • Source, from where does the customer come when arriving on your
    landing page?
  • Behavior, what does the customer do once there?
  • Geo tagging data, what day and part of day?

With a rolling scheme of 3 different ads, using segmentation as test criteria in the MVT testing will tell you whether the simple ad is the best (good for people who know or understand right away what they want) or the most detailed ad works better (good for people who need to be more informed before they act).

Conclusion: A project result was presented, with a 12% uptake in conversion, resulting 874% ROI on marketing cost and more than 1M £ in extra revenie.

Omniture's SiteSearch and SiteCatalyst will let you play with all these variables to SEO, PPC, CPM, TST optimize you marketing campaigns. Technically it is done by Javascripts used on website pages that will depending
on criteria used redirect traffic via Omniture and back to company website, presenting the different landing page choices.

Friday, November 14, 2008 6 days ago

Views from Stockholm and holiday season starting http://is.gd/7wNl
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Swedes will be able to buy iPhones with prepaid service from Nov. 17 http://is.gd/7wyB
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Come meet 6 new startups 11SquareFeet, MixMatchMusic, ChoiceBot, 23andMe, Hubpages, FixYa in San Francisco http://is.gd/7wlk
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SIME2008 - Trends you can take to the bank, views from GP Bullhound: Per Roman presented "Trends you ca.. http://tinyurl.com/64y34y
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Mirror's Edge promo by Telia - SIME2008: A big splash was made by Telia and the Mirror's Edge, the firs.. http://tinyurl.com/6xgcju
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Gapminder - What is left of the Western World?: If you think you understand what is going on in the wor.. http://tinyurl.com/6aelxx
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MoYuMe - More of you and Me, mobile picture lifestream service: MoYuMe (More of You and Me) is a mobile.. http://tinyurl.com/5dcj2w
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SIME2008 - Trends you can take to the bank, views from GP Bullhound 6:00 PM


Per Roman presented "Trends you can take to the bank". Per is CEO for the investment bank, GP Bullhound.

Per outlined his opinions and views about the present market conditions. We have got a 38% on average down on any market index you can follow. It is tough for any company that needs funding right now.

If you meet investors, be direct, in many cases, investment companies do not want to say no, they say let's schedule another meeting. Be direct, ask for term sheets, either you get them or if not move on.

The IPO market is practically dead. But, the M&A market is still alive even if the market for acquisitions on VC backed companies is down to 2001-2002 levels. About 140 deals this year.

The overall advice;
  • Be in a niche market that is an expanding market
  • Have strong distribution and sales capacity
  • Be in a business that scales internationally
  • Have domain expertise

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs.

Mirror's Edge promo by Telia - SIME2008 5:46 PM



A big splash was made by Telia and the Mirror's Edge, the first person action-adventure game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE during the SIME2008 event. On the big display on one of the high-rise buildings at Stureplan in Stockholm, you could play the game.



Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs

Gapminder - What is left of the Western World? 4:26 PM


If you think you understand what is going on in the world, think again and visit Gapminder and take a look the very entertaining and educational animated presentations by Hans Rosling, Professor of Public Health and an excellent presenter using international and UN organizations' statistics to analyze and above all visualize what the world looks like today and into the future.

Hans stated that what kids in school learn is actually based on knowledge and information that is as old as from the year the teacher was born. And since a lot of teachers were born in the 50s, 60s and 70s, what kids learn is what the world looked like back then. As a result most people think of the world as the Western world, orient and developing world.

Play with the animated statistics on the Gapminder site and you will be able to see things Hans highlighted that the Asian boom the last 20 years has meant that countries such as Vietnam has surpassed USA growth and standards in many areas.

The new Global World means
  • Convergence between different continents
  • But not for the last billion people below poverty level
  • And the growth is not based on sustainable technologies

We still have got time to do something for a positive future if we act now. Hans is a very entertaining presenter, he also got stuck with two random events, the first one Microsoft Windows automatic update kicking in during his presentation and the second one, the controller for the big screen at the movie theater quit working leaving the giant screen dark for awhile...

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs

MoYuMe - More of you and Me, mobile picture lifestream service 3:52 PM



MoYuMe (More of You and Me) is a mobile picture lifestream style sharing service. A good friend of mine, Peter Sandberg launched this business. I ran into Peter at the SIME event in Stockholm earlier this week. I like the MoYuMe services, to see a live example, check out Peter's own photo lifestream on the Disruptive blog.

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs.
Bloggers meetup at SIME2008 - Blogging the bloggers: I attended the bloggers meetup at SIME2008. Dave S.. http://tinyurl.com/5abw7z
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Hasta la vista baby! - Meet three entrepreneurs from SIME2008: The Scandinavian Interactive Media Event.. http://tinyurl.com/5tqtj7
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Bloggers meetup at SIME2008 - Blogging the bloggers 12:21 PM


I attended the bloggers meetup at SIME2008. Dave Sifry (Technorati), Kris Hoet (Microsoft) and Joi Ito (Creative Commons) presenting.

Kris Hoet, Microsoft EMEA market. Kris talked about his blog about working and Microsoft vs. his private Mustang blog ( http://crossthebreeze.com/ and http://iblogmustang.com/). Microsoft has no corporate blog yet, they do have about 5000 employees that blog and so far the company has decided this is good enough. He also stays away from topics such as being dragged into endless discussions about Microsoft vs. Apple, as he put it you don't want to start something that will result in endless comments.

Joi Ito, CEO Creative Commons. Joi (http://joi.ito.com/) talked about his ups and downs blogging. He is a very frequent blogger but has recently toned down his approach, taking up too much time and getting him involved too much. A long time ago, he wondered, how come, I don't get that much traffic and people he asked said, you are writing too good or complete articles, there is no reason to comment on anything and come back to the blog.

Dave Sifry, Founder & Chairman of the Board, Technorati, Inc. Dave (http://www.sifry.com/alerts/) talked about his experience coming out of his Technorati company. He outlined tips for how to get read by many;blog often, be personal, update regularly (more important than number of posts), think SEO, be like a creative copywriter when you come up with the title for a post. He also pitched Technorati new ad service, Engage which has passed 1Billion ads per month. http://technoratimedia.com/publishers/

Tom Crampton, moderated the discussion. http://www.thomascrampton.com/
Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs

Hasta la vista baby! - Meet three entrepreneurs from SIME2008 10:35 AM


The Scandinavian Interactive Media Event (SIME) for 2008 took place in Stockholm, Nov. 12-13 at the movie theater, Rigoletto. Cool place, when you have a giant sized movie screen and movie theater surround sound system, your presentations get a bigger bang for your bucks. Here are three of the presenters posted on movie theater posters.

Meet Andie Nordgren, pro blogger from http://www.sime.nu , Pelle Tornberg ex-CEO Metro International magazine and Norbert Teufelberger, co-CEO from the successful bWin betting company.

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs
Internetworld Magazine - Top 100 awards event at Sturecompaniet in Stockholm: The awards countdown star.. http://tinyurl.com/5l5drc
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Internetworld Magazine - Top 100 awards event at Sturecompaniet in Stockholm 9:20 AM


The awards countdown started with a presentation of websites that inspired people during 2008, amog them, PolyCola (aka. GahooYoogle) the mashup of Google and Yahoo, Twitter, Ebay (still after all these years) and others before going to the list. Here's the result of the 2008 list;

1. VisitSweden.com (new) – Sweden's best site 2008
2. SVT – best media site
3. Ving – best travel site
4. Travelstart
5. DN.se – best daily newspaper site
6. Prisjakt
7. Coolstuff (new) – best e-commerce site
8. Eniro – best search site
9. Stardoll – best idea site
10. Svd
11. Tasteline
12. Sweden.se (new)
13. Webaidshop.se (new) – best creative thoughts site
14. Lindex – the blog friendly site
15. Tretti.se
16. Fokus (new)
17. Ikea – best inspirational site (new)
18. Hitta.se
19. VA.se (new)
20. Onoff (new)
21. Pricerunner
22. Utsidan.se
23. Veckorevyn
24. Länsförsäkringar - best bank and insurance site
25. Nordnet
26. Aftonbladet
27. Kanal 5
28. Mr Green (new)
29. Dagen
30. Sesam.se
31. Stadium
32. Stallet.se (new)
33. Redeye.se (new)
34. Barnsemester.se
35. Familjeliv
36. Zoovillage.com
37. Knuff.se
38. CDON.com
39. Garaget.org
40. SR
41. Fritidsresor
42. Skatteverket – best government site (hmm.. Swedish IRS)
43. ShakeMyWorld (new)
44. Mötesplatsen
45. Newsmill – best site for opnions and views
46. Ikanobanken
47. Viktklubb.se
48. Allabolag.se
49. Booli (new)
50. Mintur.se (new)
51. SBAB
52. Wikipedia
53. TV4
54. Tradera.com
55. Grandshoes (new)
56. Swedbank
57. Modette.se (new) - best community site for fashion
58. Dustin Home (new) – best site for easy checkout
59. Taffel.se (new)
60. Haléns (new)
61. Funbeat
62. Svenskaspel.se
63. Rädda Barnen (new)
64. Manolo.se
65. Bloggkoll.com (new)
66. Unibet
67. Icabanken
68. Tappa.se (new)
69. Skistar.com
70. Tailorstore
71. Fondmarknaden (new)
72. MTV
73. Folksam
74. Sveriges riksdag
75. Playahead.com
76. Café (new)
77. Freeride
78. Aktiespararna (new)
79. Canalplus (new)
80. Bilddagboken
81. Bris
82. ATG
83. Jaycut
84. Fass.se
85. Reseguiden.se
86. DO (new)
87. Avanza Bank
88. Regeringen
89. Skandiabanken
90. Vägverket
91. Trygg-Hansa
92. Bokhora (new)
93. Bwin
94. Svenskafans.com
95. Discshop.se
96. Laget.se
97. SEB
98. Expressen
99. MUF (new)
100. Resfeber.se

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services needs.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8 days ago

going to interworld top 100 party soon in Stockholm, SIME great event so far, blogging to follow later
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Will be at SIME later http://www.sime.nu and meet up with bloggers
quotably 07:28 AM

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 9 days ago

Network and mingle Nov. 20 with CTC Network in Calabasas, CA http://is.gd/6YiB
quotably 02:04 AM

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